Defender of the Heavens
by TheCorsair0
Summary: Percy and Annabeth have left their half-blood lives behind, or so they thought. With a new enemy rising, Olympus will need its heroes once more. Ignore all of the Heroes of Olympus series, started this before they came out and just never got around to posting it. Discontinued.
1. Chapter 1

_I don't own Percy Jackson_

* * *

I often dream about that day. The day my life changed.

"**PERCY JACKSON!" **Poseidon announced. My name echoed through the chamber.

All talking died down. The room was silent except for the crackle of the hearth fire. Everyone's eyes were on me. I walked into the middle of the throne room. Hestia smiled at me reassuringly. She was in the form of a girl now, and she seemed happy and content to be sitting by her fire again. Her smile gave me courage.

First I bowed to Zeus. Then I knelt at my father's feet.

"Rise, my son," Poseidon said.

I stood uneasily.

"A great hero must be rewarded," Poseidon said. "Is there anyone here who would deny that my son is deserving?"

I waited for someone to pipe up. The gods never agreed on anything, and many of them still didn't like me, but not a single one protested.

"The Council agrees," Zeus said. "Percy Jackson, you will have one gift from the gods."

I hesitated. "Any gift?"

Zeus nodded grimly. "I know what you will ask. The greatest gift of all. Yes, if you want it, it shall be yours. The gods have not bestowed this gift on a mortal hero in many centuries, but, Perseus Jackson-if you wish it-you shall be made a god. Immortal. Undying. You shall serve as your father's lieutenant for all time."

I stared at him, stunned. "Um… a god?"

Zeus rolled his eyes. "A dimwitted god, apparently. But yes. With the consensus of the entire Council, I can make you immortal. Then I will have to put up with you forever.

I thought about the Three Fates, and the way I'd seen my life flash by. I could avoid all that. No aging, no death, no body in the grave. I could be a teenager forever, in top condition, powerful, and immortal, serving my father. I could have power and eternal life.

Who could refuse that?

Then I thought about everything I had done in the five years since learning I was a demigod. All the times my life was on the line. Fighting the titans and gods where I had so little chance of winning. Being immortal wouldn't solve that problem, it would just make it to where I would have to keep doing it with no chance of escape.

"No." I said.

The Council was silent. The gods frowned at each other like they must have misheard.

"No?" Zeus said. "You are… turning down our generous gift?"

"I'm honored and everything." I said. "Don't get me wrong. It's just… I've got a lot of life left to live. I'd hate to peak in my sophomore year."

"I do want a gift, though," I said. "Do you promise to grant my wish?"

Zeus thought about this. "If it is within our power."

"It is," I said. "And it's not even difficult. But I need your promise on the River Styx."

"What?" Dionysus cried. "You don't trust us?"

"Someone once told me," I said, looking at Hades, "You should always get a solemn oath."

Hades shrugged. "Guilty."

"Very well!" Zeus growled. "In the name of the Council, we swear by the River Styx to grant your reasonable request as long as it is within our power."

"I want out. Out of the saving the world game you have. It isn't what any sane kid would want." I said. "I want you to go to other people to solve your problems and leave me alone."

Everybody stared in shock as I walked out of the Council room. I threw the doors open and didn't look back until I was in the elevator. I climbed onto Blackjack and flew back to camp before everybody else came back. I walked from the stables toward my cabin. Chiron was waiting for me at the Big House.

"What have you done Percy?"

"I got out. I can't keep risking my life every second of every day. The gods just use us like pawns to move around and do their bidding."

"Breaking ties to the gods is a dangerous thing. You will be on your own in a dangerous world."

"I will never be on my own. I made the gods promise to leave me alone; I didn't say I would leave my friends alone. I've got my mom too."

"The gods may forbid us from helping you after this."

"Then I better hope everything you taught me was enough."

I walked to Cabin 3. I grabbed the backpack off the floor and threw everything I own into it. It didn't take very long, a few clothes, some ambrosia and nectar, and I was packed. I put Tyson's watch on my wrist and walked out the door. I got to the bottom of the hill and saw somebody at the boundary. Annabeth was standing there waiting for me. I climbed up the hill.

"I'm coming with you, seaweed brain." She said.

"Fine by me, wise girl."

I took one last look at the camp before walking down the hill. Together we left that world behind. I broke all connection with the gods on that day, even my father.

* * *

_This is my first fanfic so please don't hate. Constructive criticism will be appreciated. _


	2. Chapter 2

_Corsair: Percy if you would._

_Percy: Corsair doesn't own Percy Jackson, that right belongs to Rick Riordan and no matter how much anybody wants that to be different, that's the way it is._

_Corsair: I couldn't have said it better myself_

* * *

I slowly got out of bed and headed to our kitchen, the dream still vivid in my mind. It has been 10 years since that day. Annabeth was already there with a pot of coffee. She handed me a cup and then sat at the table.

"What's on your mind?" she asked.

"I still wonder if we did the right thing. I really needed a break from it all, but to completely turn our backs on them, I just wonder if I should have done something else."

"We can't live in the past, Percy. What's done is done and there is nothing we can do to change that."

I flipped through the envelopes on the table.

"We got another letter from Nico. I was waiting for you to open it."

I opened the envelope and pulled out a rather long letter. I skimmed through it and stopped about halfway down the page.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Just the usual." I replied. "Wishing we were at camp."

I stared at one sentence on the page.

"Thalia's gone missing." It said.

I couldn't bring myself to read past this line. Once I finally did, the rest of the letter was about a bunch of campers disappearing too.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked snatching the paper from my hands.

She read through it quickly and her happy expression quickly turned to fear.

"He thinks somebody is kidnapping the campers?" she said. "Why would anybody do that?"

"I don't know."

Suddenly, Nico walked out of the shadows cast by the door. Instinctively, I drew Riptide as Annabeth drew her dagger. We spun at the same time. Nico barely had time to avoid our blades.

"Whoa, is that really a way to greet your friends?" he said.

"Nico, what are you doing here?" Annabeth asked.

"I knew a letter would take too long to reach you. The one you have was sent two weeks ago." He said "A search party came upon a group of Hunters that had been killed."

"By monsters?" I asked.

"That's just it. They were killed by demigods, some that had never been seen around Camp Half-Blood. There were some of them lying around too. That isn't the worst news."

"Then what is?" I asked.

"Thalia was in charge of this band of Hunters. We looked but couldn't find her among them."

"So we have a group of homicidal demigods on our hands that have never been to Camp Half-Blood."

Nico just looked at me. I could tell there was something he wasn't telling me.

"What is it Nico?" Annabeth asked first.

"The weapons the demigods were using weren't made of any metal I have seen before."

"So what were they?"

"The metal was old, a metal that hasn't been used for thousands of years. If our sources were right, the metal was of a Nordic origin."

"So we are fighting Vikings?" I asked.

"Asgard hasn't been heard from in a very long time. I thought they faded." Annabeth said, ignoring my comment.

"That's why we need you to come back. If Asgard has returned, we need both of you to fight by our sides once more."

"So the gods use one of my friends to break their promise then. I guess it had to happen eventually." I said.

"You were just wondering if you should have had them promise it at all." Annabeth argued.

"Yeah, I know, but now that they broke the promise it's different."

"So you guys will help us then?" Nico asked, his voice hopeful.

"What the heck. I guess one more battle can't hurt." I said.

I called Mrs. O'Leary and we shadow traveled back to camp. I noticed the place was empty. Nico hadn't been kidding when he said a lot of campers went missing. I saw Clarisse training some kids and Grover was talking with Chiron at the Big House.

"It has been ten years since we were here." Annabeth said what I was thinking.

"Too long." A voice said from behind us.

I spun around recognizing the voice.

"Tyson!"

He almost broke every bone in my body with his hug. He had grown to almost twice the size I had last seen him.

"It has been too long, brother."

The four of us walked over to the Big House. Chiron was shocked to see us walking up to the Big House. Grover saw his face and spun around to see what he was looking at. At first he was confused, then shocked, and then a smile crept onto his face as he ran over to us.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"Just in the neighborhood, because I definitely make a habit of going places that I spent ten years getting away from." I answered sarcastically.

"We came to help, Grover." Annabeth shot me a glare.

"What, I can't be sarcastic to my oldest friend?" I replied. "So, what's going on?"

"A few months back everything was normal, and then we started having people not returning from quests. At first we thought it was just the occasional people that weren't ready for the quest, but then every quest we sent started to disappear. Two months ago we started to look for the lost campers and we couldn't find anything until yesterday." Grover explained.

"And that's when you found Thalia's Hunters surrounded by the weird demigods." I finished.

"Yeah, we searched until about an hour ago but couldn't find Thalia. Nico decided we should get you guys, just in case something really bad is happening."

"If the Norse demigods are returning, something really bad is happening. They loved war, or so the stories say, and they attacked our camp multiple times until they just disappeared one day." Annabeth said.

"We can't let them do this. If they know when and where you send quests, then they have to figure out the information somehow. Just send a quest with our strongest people on it and we can figure out what is going on." I reasoned.

"That is why I got you, Percy. We want you and Annabeth to go with me and Clarisse to the last place we know they were."

"I thought you couldn't find anything there?"

"They had to have been there though. Maybe the amount of demigods we had there scared them off. If that's the case, they would go back and we might be able to find them again."

"Just the four of us go and try to find the people that killed a group of twenty Hunters and kidnapped Thalia? Sounds like a perfectly logical thing to do." I said.

Annabeth shot me another glare.

"Ok, if I can't be sarcastic then I can't do much of anything. That's just my way of coping with the fact that I am about to go on a potentially suicidal mission." I explained.

"So you will go?" Chiron asked.

"Sure, why not?" I said.

I waited for twenty minutes as Clarisse finished her training session and Nico packed. Once they arrived, we started down the hill to the van on the road. The only thought going through my mind was "The last time I was here, I thought I was leaving for good. This time, it might actually be true."

* * *

_Happy reunions all around. _

_Will they find Thalia? _

_Will they get attacked? _

_Why am I asking you about the future of my story? _

_I have no clue. Please review. I like to know if I am doing good or not. Don't hate though, constructive criticism please._


	3. Chapter 3

_Corsair: Nico, your up._

_Nico: Corsair doesn't own Percy Jackson or anything associated with it. All he owns is the plot and OCs._

_Corsair: Thanks Nico. Now for the story._

* * *

The four of us drove off in the van, probably to our most certain demise. We drove to the other side of Pennsylvania before finally stopping at some National Forest; I couldn't quite make out the name as we sped past the sign. I got out of the van and almost kissed the ground.

"Why did we let Nico drive?" Clarisse asked, who was, in fact, kissing the ground.

"It isn't my fault I'm a bad driver. I never really have to, you know with the shadow travel."

"Let's get going. I'm driving back if we survive this though." I said.

We walked into the forest until we came upon a small clearing. Nico was leading and motioned for us to stop.

"I hear somebody up ahead." He said.

"I'll go check it out."

Clarisse walked around the clearing. She paused and stared into the forest away from the clearing. I saw the gleam of sunshine on metal inches away from her throat.

"She's in trouble. There is somebody with a blade to her neck." I told the others.

A man's voice started to yell. "I have your friend over here. I suggest the rest of you campers put your weapons on the ground and step into the clearing."

"I told you, there ain't nobody else here." Clarisse said.

Nico sheathed his Stygian Iron sword and walked into the clearing. Behind his back, he motioned for us to stay put.

"What have we here? I thought you said you were alone?" the man said.

"We're just looking for our friends and then we'll be on our way." Nico told him.

"I'm afraid you're not going anywhere. You see, we can't let you go warning that camp of your about us just yet."

"Camp already knows about you, that tends to happen when you start killing people and leaving them to be found." Clarisse said.

"You mean those Hunters? They walked in on us. We couldn't let them tell your gods, so we had to do something.

"What about Thalia?" Nico asked.

"You mean the daughter of Zeus? She just refused to die, so we took her back to our camp. I imagine she is feeling the full effects of those powers she uses right now."

"What do you mean?" Nico said.

"I have already told you more than corpses need to know. Now, I can't let you leave." He whistled and more demigods stepped into the clearing from behind him.

"You need so many people to fight two of us? Here I was thinking the Norse were strong." Nico joked.

Nico summoned legions of undead that met the Norse demigods' charge. As much as I wanted to help, I knew we had to stay put in case things turned south. Clarisse managed to break away from her captor and was fighting four demigods at once. The fight ended quickly leaving around twenty Norse demigods dead in the clearing. Nico had the man at sword point in the middle of the clearing. I walked out from behind the tree and Annabeth ran over to Clarisse, who had a rather large hole in her leg. Together, they managed to walk/stumble over to us. Nico tended to Clarisse while I talked to the man.

"Where's Thalia?" I commanded. It was about the tenth time I asked the question and the answer never changed.

"Go to Hel."

I reached over and pulled Annabeth's knife from her hand. She went to grab for it again, but I had already put it in the man's thigh.

"I am going to ask one more time. Where… is… Thalia?" I twisted the knife with each word.

"Percy…" I could see the fear in my friends' eyes. I pulled the knife out and handed it back to Annabeth.

"I don't know what to do. Thalia could be dead, this guy won't tell us where she is, and on top of all that, he's laughing at us."

As soon as I pulled the knife out, the man had started to laugh. Nico unsheathed his sword and put it through the man's shoulder.

"Percy's right. We have to make him talk somehow." He told Annabeth.

"Umm… Nico, I think we should have used something other than stygian iron to do that." I said.

"All we have to do is wait." He insisted. "If he starts to die before he talks, I'll just pull the blade out and we can do it again."

So we waited for a while. Things started to get really boring so I started talking to the prisoner again.

"You going to tell us yet?"

"Go to Hel."

"You will be soon, if you don't talk."

"I died in battle, I'll go to Valhalla." He said.

"Hate to break it to ya, but the battle ended like ten minutes ago. Now you're just dying a pointless death that could be prevented. All you have to do is tell me where my friend is."

He thought about my words for a while before answering.

"They're at our ship."

"What is with my enemies and boats? Kronos had a boat, and now you guys have one. Who will get one next?" I asked, more to myself than anybody standing there. "Where's your boat?"

"Just outside of Boston."

"Nico, I'm driving." I said.

We ran back to the van and I dove into the driver's seat. We sped down the road towards Boston.

"If there on a ship, why don't we go get one of ours from camp?" Clarisse asked.

"When did you guys build boats?" I replied.

"We put the Hephaestus cabin on it a few years ago. The oars row themselves and each boat can hold around 30 people."

"Then let's get a boat."

I turned back towards camp and drove well over the speed limit. When we got there, Clarisse led the way to the new docks, which I am ashamed that I didn't notice them before. We got into a boat and the ship took off. I should probably explain the ship to you. It was an Ancient Greek trireme with 170 self-rowing oars. On the front, was a large, metal battering ram and there were grappling hooks inside to pull a boat closer.

Anyway, the ship took off for Boston. It took a while to get there, but we managed to get there before the five longboats left their makeshift boat ramp. The Norse demigods were pushing the boats into the water as we arrived. Their boats started to move down shore.

"We need to ram the one in the back, Clarisse." Annabeth said.

"What if Thalia's on board?" Nico asked.

"You said she disappeared two weeks ago, right? So, they wouldn't wait until now to send her to their base, or camp, or whatever. They would have done it two weeks ago. I think they are looking for something up here and can't find it. That's why they keep coming back."

"We've sent enough of our campers there that they could think camp is there." Nico suggested.

"Or, there looking for whatever you guys are looking for." Annabeth said.

"We got word of an old monster in that area. We sent the first few groups to see what it was and the next few to find the first few." Clarisse said.

"Sorry to ruin the let-Annabeth-figure-it-all-out session, but brace for impact." I called.

We all grabbed onto something as the metal tip of our trireme cut through the longboat. I jumped over the railing onto the sinking longboat and grabbed an unconscious demigod. I dove into the water and willed it to push us to the trireme. It was turning around to ram another longboat. I willed the water to throw us on board and then dragged him to the hatch on the roof. I lowered him through it and dragged him over to the grappling hooks. I used one of the ropes to tie his hands together and to the side of the boat. As soon as I finished the trireme collided with another longboat. The collision threw me to the back of the boat. I hit the wall and it drove the air from my lungs. Two of the longboats turned around and came along side us while the fifth continued on its path.

The Norse demigods swarmed onto the trireme from both sides. I could see Annabeth and Nico struggling to hold them off. I got up and ran to them. As I ran, water flowed up over the boat and surrounded me with a mini-hurricane. Annabeth and Nico backed off as I took on the remaining Norse demigods. After a few minutes, they were all dead or in the ocean. I concentrated on the waves around the remaining longboat as we sped toward it. A storm started to form, but it wouldn't go near the boat.

"You think you are stronger than me. I am the son of a storm giant." A kid called from the longboat.

We sped toward the longboat, but they increased their speed before we hit them. Our battering ram collided with the back end of the longboat spinning it around. It caused the kid to lose his concentration on the storm enough for me to push it over the longboat. Waves swamped the boat with enough force that their rowers were thrown from their seats. I used the last of my strength to smash the boat in between two waves. The wood cracked under the pressure and the boat broke apart. As the waves died down, I slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

_AN:If you don't know what a trireme looks like, it has a flat roof across the top and the side of the boat is open and a railing runs along it to stop people from falling out. They usually had 170 oarsmen and could carry an extra 30-45 people depending on the size of the boat._

_Tell me what you think. If you have ideas for what you want in the story, I would love to hear them. Fell free to PM or put it in a review, I check both constantly._


	4. Chapter 4

_Corsair: I am getting to the part of the story that I didn't write a few years ago and school is about to start again, so the chapters will take a little time to come out. I will try to post weekly though. Now, who wants to do the disclaimer this time?_

_*silence_

_Clarisse: I guess I will. This punk doesn't own Percy Jackson or anything associated with it. All he owns is this plot and OCs._

_Corsair: Thanks... anyway on to the story_

* * *

Demigod dreams suck. They're never just dreams; they have to be omens or some other mumbo jumbo that I still don't understand. In this dream I was wondering on the beach. I was walking somewhere but couldn't see my destination. I walked for what seemed like hours until I came upon a group of people. They were huddled around something that I couldn't see. I moved closer to them.

"Again? You want me to do it again?" a girl said from the middle of the circle.

A massive bolt of lightning struck the center of the circle. I heard a familiar voice scream.

"Thalia!" I cried out.

"She can't hear you." A girl next to me said. "You're dreaming."

"Then how can you?" I asked.

"My mother is the Norse god of dreams. I brought you here to show you how pointless it is to fight us. Her lightning is no match for the daughter of Thor." The girl pointed toward where the lightning hit.

We moved through the people into the middle of the circle. I saw Thalia tied between two metal poles, an arm and leg tied to each one. Her shirt was lying on the ground and what remained of her pants were charred. Her hair was singed and she was barely conscious. No, she was barely alive. Percy moved so the girl was between him and Thalia.

"This has been going on since we captured her. She is stubborn and won't tell us anything."

"And you think I will because you torture Thalia? If she hasn't said anything yet, you won't get anything." I replied.

"You can end this. All you have to do is tell me where your camp is." The daughter of Thor said to Thalia.

Thalia raised her head to look her in the eye. Then, she did something that surprised even me. Despite the burns and drain of weeks' worth of torture, she spit in the girl's face.

"My answer won't change." Thalia said.

An even bigger bolt of lightning than the first struck Thalia. She screamed in pain before passing out.

"You can make this stop." The girl told me. "Just tell me what she wants to know."

"I'll tell you this; my name is Perseus Jackson, savior of Olympus and defeater of Kronos. You will stop now or I will kill you."

"With the four people you have on your ship? Yes, Perseus, we know that you are coming, and we know what you can do. Though, I am surprised you beat Xavier. I guess you are stronger than we give you credit for."

"Are you done already?" the girl asked Thalia. "Time to get up."

I watched on as Thalia was shocked by another bolt of lightning. Her eyes snapped open and she screamed again.

"Why are you making me watch this? Just send me back already because I won't tell you anything."

"I want you watch this. Watch how your friend writhes in pain, hear her screams, and know that you had the chance to stop it."

"I won't be helping Thalia by telling you what you want to know. It would just mean you wouldn't need her anymore. Her silence is the only thing stopping you from killing her."

"They told me you were stupid, that you would do anything to save your friends."

"And me talking with you will only get her killed. I can say no and watch you torture her because I believe she will be killed otherwise."

"It doesn't matter. She will talk eventually and then you will all die anyway."

"I have a question for you now. Why do you want to kill us?"

"You're the foot soldiers. It is necessary for you to die before we can march on Olympus."

"Why do you even care about Olympus? You aren't even Greek; your gods live on a different world."

"Why do you? We were told you made them leave you alone, yet here you are. You fight for them like the pawn you didn't want to be."

"Somebody else tried to do this once, tried to destroy Olympus. He too found me blocking his path. He tried this same trick to turn me against the gods. It didn't work last time and it sure as hell won't work this time."

"It isn't a trick. I am simply curious about why you fight for the gods you tried to get away from. You lived the dream of most demigods, a normal life, but you return only a few years later to fight a new battle."

"If you know so much about me you should know this already. One thing I will never do is turn my back on a friend. My friends needed me so here I am. This has nothing to do with the gods. I really couldn't care less about that. My friends, on the other hand, put themselves between you and Olympus so that is where I have to be."

Thalia's scream interrupted our conversation. I never thought I would see such a strong person broken as much as Thalia was. Her face was drained of most color and the energy that was normally in her eyes was gone.

"What was that about helping your friends? You don't seem to be helping Thalia. If you really wanted to help her, you would tell me want we want to know."

"No matter how long you keep me here or how many times you ask that question; my answer will be the same. Mine and Thalia's silence are the only things keeping her alive. You could save yourself time and energy by sending me back."

"Just keep watching; maybe you will change your mind."

I turned back, just in time to see the girl put a knife into Thalia's exposed abdomen. She screamed a little quieter than when the lightning hit but not much. The girl started twisting it around.

"Answer the question and this will all be over." She said.

Thalia just continued to scream. After a while, the knife was moved to the other side of her abdomen.

"Are you trying to kill her?" I asked.

"No, the torture follows the same pattern every day. First, they whip, then, they use lightning, and to finish it they do this. At the end of the day, somebody puts her shirt back on her unconscious body and they heal her over night with magic. Then it all starts over the next day."

"She has put up with this for the last two weeks." I mumbled to myself.

I was amazed at her loyalty to camp and her friends. Mortals would have died and most demigods would have spilled their guts on the first day, let alone last two weeks. Thalia just kept pushing through. Before long the screaming died down again. All the pain had knocked her out for the third time since I had been here. Just like the girl said, they put her shirt back on and carried her off.

"I will give you one last chance to tell me what I want to know. Answer the question and she won't have to go through all that again tomorrow."

"But she'll be dead. I don't think that's what she wants or she would have died a long time ago. I'll give you this warning; if I get here and she's been harmed again or she's dead, you all will die. If she hasn't, maybe, just maybe, some of you will live through our fight."

"What you see here isn't even half of our numbers Perseus Jackson. What hope do you stand against us?"

"Apparently you didn't get the memo; you just pissed off the one person who turned down immortality. I didn't need it then and I definitely won't need it to kick your sorry asses."

"I look forward to our encounter then, Perseus. Sleep well, you'll need it."

My surroundings disappeared until I was standing alone in a dark tunnel. I could hear Annabeth calling my name. I spun around and ran towards her voice. My eyes snapped open and I saw Annabeth and Nico standing over me. Clarisse was sitting down with her arm and chest bandaged. I could see they had rewrapped it multiple times, but I could still see blood through it.

"Percy, thank the gods your all right." Nico said.

Annabeth moved to give me a hug, but I dodged it and ran over to the kid I grabbed. Annabeth stared at me with a hurt expression, but I ignored it. I grabbed the kid by the collar and lifted him off the ground. They had untied him from the side of the ship but his hands and feet were tied together.

"Where are you holding Thalia?" I commanded.

"Who?"

"The daughter of Zeus you kidnapped when you killed the Hunter's. Where is she?"

"Oh… the annoying black haired one. I don't know for sure."

I threw him against the side of the boat. He hit the wall with a sickening crunch. When I picked him up again he was bleeding and his arm was bending the wrong way.

"Does that refresh your memory?"

"All I know is we took her to some place in Florida. It was on the coast I think. That's all I know, swear."

I set him down and punched him in the stomach.

"Your memory better improve by the time we get there."

My friends just stared at me, expressions of confusion and fear decorated their faces. I moved to the back of the boat and sat down. Annabeth came over and sat beside me.

"What's up, Percy?"

"They are torturing Thalia, and some chick brought me along to watch. I don't think she'll be able to survive much longer."

* * *

_Will they get to Thalia in time? What do you guys think? As always, send ideas and suggestions in reviews or PM._

_-Corsair_


	5. Chapter 5

_Corsair: Short AN for whoever cares enough to be angry at me. Sorry this took so long to come out. I tried to make that deadline until it passed and then didn't care much anymore. I just had too much stuff going on. Now I believe it is time for the disclaimer. Annabeth, take it away._

_Annabeth: Okay..._

_Thalia: Hey! I come all the way over here to do the disclaimer and then you let Annabeth do it._

_Corsair: You are supposed to be unconscious right now, and I said Annabeth was doing this one._

_Thalia: Fine, I'll just go back to sleep then. I wake up and go across country to get here and then you just turn me down. Talk about under appreciation._

_Corsair: Anyway, Annabeth, time for the disclaimer._

_Annabeth: Corsair doesn't own PJO or anything associated with it. All he owns are the plot and the Norsemen in the story. Why are they here anyway?_

_Corsair: I am just writing your story down. I don't know until you do._

* * *

Nico and Clarisse walked over just as I finished talking to Annabeth.

"What are you talking about Percy?" Nico asked.

I went through my dream again. Annabeth was the first to speak.

"If her mom was the god of dreams, couldn't she have been influencing your dream to see something that wasn't really happening?"

"It doesn't matter if it really happened or not. We need to find Thalia anyway." Nico said.

I quickly tuned out the argument that followed, which probably wasn't my best idea.

"What do you think Percy?" Nico asked.

"Uh?" was my brilliant response.

"What should we do?" Annabeth repeated.

"We need to find Thalia." I said.

"If it's a trap?" Annabeth asked.

"Then we fight our way out." Clarisse insisted.

"We still have to find Thalia." Nico said.

Again, I started to tune them out and willed the ship to take us towards Florida. The ship sped down the coastline and the sun set when we reached the northern tip of New Jersey. If they stopped arguing, it was after I fell asleep. I was shaken awake from my oddly dreamless sleep by Nico.

"We're in Florida, Percy."

My dad must have been helping, because the first time I made a trip down here it took two days. Everybody was gathered around our prisoner. Clarisse poured water on him. His eyes snapped open and he started coughing.

"We reached Florida already?" he asked.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"I can't remember."

That pushed me over the edge. Before I could stop myself, I slammed my knee into his stomach and then flipped him over the edge of the boat. The water pulled him under as soon as he hit it. He tried to swim back up, but when he got close the water pushed him down again. Nico and Clarisse stared on in shock.

"Percy, stop!" Annabeth cried.

She threw her body against me and knocked me to the ground. It broke my concentration enough for the kid to float to the surface. He shot out of the water and landed on the top of the boat. Clarisse went to get him. I sat down and waited for them to come back. Clarisse had to drag him to us and then slapped him back to consciousness.

"Are you ready to tell us where she is?" I asked.

"We set up base in what you call the Sea of Monsters. It is just inside the clashing rocks."

Annabeth grabbed my shoulder.

"The clashing rocks are a death trap. We have to go around them." She said.

"We would have to backtrack to Scylla and Charybdis. That would put us days out of our way after we go all the way through the sea of monsters."

She stared at me before she huffed and walked away. I willed the ship to carry us into the sea of monsters. It took a few minutes before we arrived at a small strait between two cliffs. We started to head between them until Annabeth yelled out.

"Those are the symplegades." She explained.

I urged the ship to stop.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"Jason got through by letting a dove fly through them first and then he followed immediately after they reopened." Nico offered.

"Anybody have an idea that doesn't involve the possibility of something dying?" I asked.

"We go around." Annabeth said.

"We would have to backtrack to Scylla and Charybdis, which would waste time." I argued again.

"The planctae are the third entrance to the sea of monsters. Jason and the Argonauts encountered them when they left the sea." She explained.

"I remember the story now." Clarisse said. "They are on the other side of the sea of monsters though. We would have to go around the sea and then back through it the same as if we went to Scylla and Charybdis."

I summed up what they were saying. "So we have to go through here."

As those words came out of my mouth, the two cliffs slammed together. The sound was probably heard in Miami. We all stared at the two cliffs as they slowly backed away from each other.

"Go!" they all screamed at me as I willed the boat to speed between the cliffs.

We were halfway through when they started to slam shut again. I urged the ship to go faster and time seemed to slow down. The cliffs closed down on the back fourth of our ship, two feet from Clarisse. She stared at the void just behind her.

"Well, that was close."

"_Bqllr_!" The Norseman exclaimed.

"What was that?" I asked.

"You _swina_ weren't supposed to survive."

"What did he call us?" I asked Annabeth.

"He just said this was supposed to kill us and all you can think about is that he might have called you a name?"

"It was the only part I didn't understand."

"He said swine." Nico said.

Everybody turned and stared at him.

"I learned Old Norse at school."

"_ά__ί__ό_ " The words just spewed out, I had no control over what I was saying. I think it meant "throw yourself to the crows, whore."

"We can trade curses all day, that won't help us get out of the sea of monsters with only ¾ of a ship." Annabeth reasoned.

Our ship, or what was left of it, was sinking rather quickly. I summoned a current to push us to a nearby island. Annabeth, Nico, and Clarisse walked onto the land while I stood knee deep in the ocean. Our prisoner stayed on the broken ship.

"Hey, Dad, we really need some help. We got trapped in the sea of monsters, so if you could send us a ride or something, that would be great." I said to the ocean.

I waited for something to happen. I don't know what I was expecting, some hippocampi to burst from the waves, really just for something to happen. Nothing did. We sat on the tiny strip of land for what felt like hours before I got an answer. It came in the form of what I thought were hippocampi at first, until I saw the human torso on top of the horse/fish bodies.

"Did somebody call for some studs?" one of the man/horse/fish things asked.

"What are you exactly?" I asked.

"I am Aphros and this is my brother Bythos." The other said.

"They are ichthyocentaurs, the cousins of Chiron." Annabeth said.

"We need to get back to Florida. Can you take us?" Nico asked.

"We could carry four but not all five of you." Bythos said.

"How about repairing the ship, could you do that?" Clarisse asked.

"You need a couple Cyclops to repair that." Aphros said looking at the ship.

"If only Tyson had come with us." Annabeth said.

"There is an island near here with plenty of ships. We can take you there." Aphros said.

"Four of you anyway." Bythos added.

"Our nephew will have to swim." Aphros agreed.

"I'm fine with that." I replied.

Nico and the Norseman climbed onto Aphros and Annabeth and Clarisse on Bythos. They galloped off across the water faster than I thought possible. I dove in and followed them. After a few minutes we came to another island. I caught up to them as they argued with each other.

"I think they're on this island." Aphros was saying.

"Do you see any ships? No, so they must be on that island." Bythos pointed to another island only a hundred yards away.

"They are here, I know they are." Aphros said.

"I can see the ships over there so they must be there."

"Fine we'll go over there and if the heroes die it's your fault."

They took off again and reached the other island before I started swimming again. I had arrived at the island to see Annabeth and Nico running back to the beach. They were being chased by some very angry monkeys. Annabeth later told me they were Satyros Nesios (Σατνρος Νεσιος), or island satyrs. They climbed onto the ichthyocentaurs who yelled at each other as they galloped away.

"I told you it was the other island." Aphros said.

"Let's just get out of here." Bythos replied.

We got back to the other island in no time.

"This is the island we wanted. Your pick of ships is on the other side of the island." Bythos said.

"What lives on this island?" Annabeth asked.

"A tribe of lotus-eaters." Aphros answered.

"They eat flowers?" Nico asked.

"It is a special type of lotus that only grows on their island. It supposedly tastes so good that it makes you want to stay forever." Annabeth said.

"I thought they were at the hotel in Las Vegas." I said.

"That group left the island because very few people travel through here. Apparently mortals prefer Vegas over the Bermuda Triangle." Bythos said.

"You said the ships were on the other side of the island?" Nico said.

"Yes, just past the lotus-eaters." Aphros replied.

"Then why didn't you take us there?" I asked.

"They don't like us." Bythos answered.

"Now off you go. You need to get back to heroing or whatever it is you were doing." Aphros said with a shooing motion.

They dove back into the sea without another word. We walked down the beach for a while before seeing a vast assortment of ships. There was everything from ancient triremes to modern cruise ships. I still hadn't seen a single person on the island, so we climbed into a yacht and drove off. We locked the prisoner in one of the crew rooms on the lower deck. I was piloting our ship as everybody else got some sleep. We sped through Scylla and Charybdis's strait at night, they must have been asleep, and headed back to Florida.

* * *

This chapter was small because I needed to get it up. The updates would come out faster if you sent ideas for the story line through review or PM. I have an idea of where it is going but am not sure how it will get there or when so please help me fill in those details. It would make it faster and more enjoyable for you because you get to influence my story. No author writes their story 100% by there self, they have editors and their own equivalent of betas to help out.


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